REDWOOD CITY —— A judge ruled Friday that a Belmont man who has drunken driving convictions cannot withdraw from a plea bargain he cut with prosecutors for his latest driving under the influence charge, a prosecutor said Friday.

Judge Joseph Scott ruled that 42-year-old William Simon’s argument, which stated that media coverage of the case had made a fair trial impossible, wasn’t good enough to get out of the deal, said Assistant District Attorney Karen Guidotti. Simon’s attorney Timothy Gomes declined to comment on the case.

Simon had been standing trial in July for his eighth DUI charge when he decided to accept a plea bargain that left him facing a maximum of two years in prison and time in an alcohol treatment facility, prosecutors said. As part of the deal he pleaded no contest to the charges against him.

At his next court appearance, Simon argued that he had only accepted the deal because media attention of his case had made the jury biased against him. Guidotti called Simon’s change of heart “buyer’s remorse.”

Prosecutor’s say the man was highly intoxicated when he drove into the parking lot of a San Mateo shopping center at 7 a.m. on Jan. 11 and went the wrong way down a row of spots, despite a “Do Not Enter” sign. Simon then parked his car crookedly and walked past two California Highway Patrol officers who were sitting in front of a coffee shop. The officers noticed the smell of alcohol on the man and began to talk with him. A breath test later showed that Simon had a blood-alcohol level of .22, prosecutors said. The legal limit is .08. The man’s previous DUI convictions had happened between 1985 and 2005.

Simon is due back in court on Oct. 23 for sentencing. He is in custody in lieu of $50,000 bail.